Special General Memorandum 15-04

SGM No. 15-04

October 1, 2015

TO:

Contracting Officers

FROM:

Deputy Director

SUBJECT:

Construction Contracting Consolidation

The purpose of this Special General Memorandum (SGM) is to address the acquisition of construction, Architect-Engineer (A-E) services, and modular buildings subject to Title I, Subpart J of Public Law 93-638 and the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 36 purchased pursuant to the FAR Parts 8, 13, 14, 15, or 16 for all standalone actions exceeding $150,000.

Construction and A-E services contracts have inherent cost, performance, and schedule risks that supply and service contracts do not. Construction contracts have the greatest occurrence of contract administration problems by type. Effective construction contract execution and administration requires specialized experience and active contract administration to ensure cost and performance risks are managed and mitigated through timely and appropriate execution of necessary contract actions.

It is the policy of the Indian Health Service (IHS) that all new contract actions expected to exceed $150,000 as described in the first paragraph (above) shall be planned, solicited, executed, administered and closed out by the Office of Environmental Health and Engineering, Division of Engineering Services (DES) Contracting Offices. Existing contracts that fall under the purview of this SGM shall remain with the respective Area Office through closeout unless otherwise agreed upon between the Area and DES. Effective dates for all actions exceeding $150,000 described in the first paragraph (above) are listed in the next paragraph (below).

Area Contracting Offices are required to direct all said actions exceeding $150,000 described in paragraph 1 to the DES Chief Contracting Officer(s) for action effective on the following dates: